Jeremy Roenick says other players will try not to hurt Sidney Crosby

Jeremy Roenick dropped by the ManCave to talk about Sidney Crosby and other big NHL storylines.

Dan asked Roenick if he would lay off Wayne Gretzky during his playing days.“You had to,” Roenick said. “If not you’re being chased by Marty McSorley and those guys.”

Roenick thinks Crosby will get the same kind of treatment.“I do think people are going to think twice about how hard they’re going to hit Sid,” Roenick said. “There’s no question there’s going to be preferential treatment – and there should be.”

Roenick said the culture around concussions used to be different when he was on the ice. “When I couldn’t remember my name one day,” Roenick said, “I thought it was lack of education. Now I know it was concussion symptoms.”

Roenick weighed in on the former NHL tough guys who committed suicide. Roenick thinks there was an underlying problem and he’s not sure it was. But he doesn’t think a lot of the bruisers want to fight.

That being said, Roenick thinks that you can’t totally remove fighting. “I think a lot of the flair of hockey will be taken out of it,” Roenick said.

Roenick, however, did say that the NHL thug is on his way out. Rules and culture are changing.